(Daily Beast) Leslie H. Gelb - President Obama is wisely avoiding ever creeping military measures on behalf of rebels, many of whom might well turn out to be even worse than the already viperous President Assad. The real dangers in Syria today come less from Assad and much more from increasingly potent Sunni extremist fighters. If the "rebels" win, jihadis likely would be the real victors. They'd swiftly create a terrorist state to menace Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel. U.S. strategy must be constructed to blunt that nightmare. Most Syrian Sunnis don't have a history of religious radicalism. They don't want rule by shari'a law any more than the Alawites do. The writer is president emeritus of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations.
2013-02-27 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive